


a tender heart with clenched fists

by vincerets



Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Neck Kissing, Twins, may just wants to be a good sister and protect her brother, unapologetic references to tangled because it slaps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23424142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vincerets/pseuds/vincerets
Summary: “She told us that something had happened with you and another boy today. That you did something you shouldn’t have done, but we wanted to talk to you about it first. Do you want to tell us what happened?”She sighs dramatically and uncrosses her arms, letting them rest on her lap instead. Her bottom lip trembles for a second and Callum’s worried she might start crying but then she’s huffing and saying, “he was being mean!”-Their daughter gets in trouble at school and Ben and Callum want to know why. May just wants to stick up for her brother.
Relationships: Callum "Halfway" Highway/Ben Mitchell
Comments: 10
Kudos: 77





	a tender heart with clenched fists

“May, darling-” Callum starts, sliding into one of the free chairs at the table next to her.

Ben takes one of the ones opposite her and smiles when she looks up at him from her painting. She smiles back, all bright-eyed and innocent in a way that reminds him so much of Callum, before focusing her attention back on the painting she’s been working on.

“Yes Daddy?” she asks, swishing her paintbrush around in the cup of water to clean off the old paint. She dries it on the newspaper they’d put down to stop her from making a mess, before dipping it into a different colour. 

“Did something happen at school today?”

May hums in thought for a few seconds and then shrugs her shoulders. “We did our spellings and I got the most right out of anyone in the class!” she beams, sticking her tongue out in concentration as she paints a bright yellow sun in the corner of the paper.

“That’s great, honey!” Ben beams back, glancing down at the floor when he feels a tugging on his leg.

Teddy’s there, and he’s holding his arms out in a way that means he wants to be picked up. So, Ben does. He reaches down and lifts his son so that he can sit him in his lap. 

“Except for me. We got the same,” Teddy says quietly, shifting until he’s comfortable in his dad’s lap. He’s always been curious about the world, so it’s no surprise to any of them when he stares at his sister and watches her paint.

“Miss Marrs says it’s a twin thing but that’s not right. It’s because we’re both really good at spellings!” May insists, giving the sunshine on her painting two eyes and a wide smile.

Teddy nods his agreement and sticks one of his thumbs in his mouth, the other curling tightly around Ben’s arm.

“It’s definitely because you’re both so smart,” Ben says, peppering kisses across Teddy’s cheeks until he giggles around his thumb and swats at his face. “What do you say we pick up your sister this weekend and go for some ice cream?”

“Ben!” Callum hisses, glaring at him. It’s a glare that says _she’s supposed to be in trouble_ and his husband just shrugs back at him. The kids are already beaming at the prospect of both ice cream and seeing Lexi and Callum doesn’t have the heart to tell them no.

“Did anything else happen today? Maybe something that you shouldn’t have done? Something you might have got in trouble for?” he continues, scooting his chair a little closer to his daughter.

She just shakes her head and carries on painting.

“May, sweetheart, can you look at me for a second?” Callum asks, watching as she nods enthusiastically and puts her paintbrush in the cup of water. Once she’s sure it won’t drip on her painting, she scoots around so she’s sitting sideways in the chair and facing him. “We got a phone call from your teacher today, darling. Miss Marrs?”

May scrunches her nose up at the mention of her teacher and folds her arms defiantly across her chest. “I don’t like her.”

Callum makes a mental note to ask her about that later. “She told us that something had happened with you and another boy today. That you did something you shouldn’t have done, but we wanted to talk to you about it first. Do you want to tell us what happened?”

She sighs dramatically and uncrosses her arms, letting them rest on her lap instead. Her bottom lip trembles for a second and Callum’s worried she might start crying but then she’s huffing and saying, “he was being mean!”

“What do you mean, darling?” Ben cuts in, leaning a little closer to the table. “What was he doing to you?”

“Not me,” May says, shaking her head. 

“He was being mean to somebody else?” Callum prompts, and she nods her head. “Do you want to tell us who it was?”

She looks across the table at her brother for a second. He’s still looking at her painting and she reaches up to turn it around so that he can see it. It’s a picture of the two of them and he grins when he recognises himself. She hands him one of the dry paintbrushes and some paint and lets him start adding his own paint to the picture.

“It was Teddy,” she says once she’s sure her brother is at least a little distracted by the painting. “They were being mean to Teddy.”

Ben doesn’t say anything, but he tightens his grip on their son.

“What were they doing?” Callum asks, glancing over to Ben and meeting his eyes.

“They were picking on him! He was reading outside by himself and they went up to him and took his books,” she starts, curling her little hands into fists. “I thought they just wanted to share at first but then they started pushing him.”

Callum reaches down and coaxes her hands out until she’s holding onto him. She takes after Ben when it comes to her temper, they both know that.

“And I told them to stop it and that it wasn’t nice, but they kept doing it and they were making fun of him for sucking his thumb. They called him a baby and he was getting upset.”

She goes quiet, like she’s reluctant to say anymore.

“You can tell us, sweetheart,” Callum says, moving one of his hands to lift her chin up until their eyes meet.

“And I told him to stop being mean to my brother and I pushed him down,” May says quietly. “And he got upset and told Miss Marrs and she said that Teddy had to share his books. She didn’t tell the boy off for being mean or anything!”

Callum nods once and drops a kiss to her forehead before he turns his attention to their son.

“Teddy?” he asks. He doesn’t stop painting, but hums in acknowledgement so Callum knows he’s heard him. “Is it true? What your sister’s saying? Were those boys being mean to you?”

Teddy doesn’t say anything, just nods his head a few times.

Ben’s angry, he can tell. His shoulders are tense and he’s clenching his jaw. Callum can feel it too.

“Am I in trouble, Daddy?” May asks, her voice uncharacteristically soft and timid. 

“No, baby, of course not!” Callum insists, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his lap. She throws her arms around his neck and holds on and Callum already knows he’ll be giving that teacher an earful tomorrow.

“You and Dad always tell us that we have to take care of each other, and I didn’t want anybody to be mean to him!”

“I know, I know,” he whispers, rubbing small circles into her back to try and calm her down. “You’re not in trouble, I promise. You were just trying to protect Teddy. But what do we always say to do if someone’s doing something mean?”

May sniffles a little and pulls back to wipe at her eyes. “Tell an adult. I promise I tried to tell the teacher, but she said they were just playing but they _weren’t_! He was being _mean!”_

Callum holds her a little tighter against his chest and lets her cling to him until she calms down.

“You’re not in trouble, baby, I promise, alright?” Callum says, a little of the tension leaving his shoulders when she nods in understanding. He runs his fingers through her hair to soothe her as best as he can. “Me and Dad will talk to your teacher’s tomorrow, alright? We’ll get this all figured out.”

He glances over at his boys; Teddy’s showing Ben his painting and his husband’s eagerly asking questions in return.

“And who’s that?” Ben asks, pointing at one of the figures in the middle of the picture.

“That’s Lexi!” Teddy says eagerly, moving his finger to the other figures as he names them. “And me, and May, and you, and Daddy!”

Callum wonders how he got so lucky.

“Right!” he says, getting to his feet and balancing May on his hip. She giggles in delight and clutches at his neck. “Who’s turn is it to pick the film?”

“Me, me, me!” Teddy beams, scrambling down from Ben’s lap and running over to their ever-growing movie collection.

In his arms, May’s smiling as she watches her brother, and Callum sets her back on the floor so that she can run over and help him. It’ll take them _at least_ ten minutes to decide on a film. Teddy won’t watch anything May doesn’t want to and he’ll end up going through their entire collection asking, “what about this one?” until he gets a nod from her. 

It’ll be Tangled; it’s what they always choose.

“We’ll get the snacks ready!” Callum calls to them and gets two mumbled ‘thanks!’ in response as they walk into the kitchen.

“We’re taking the kids to school together tomorrow. And we’re talking to that teacher,” Callum huffs, pulling a bowl out of one of the cupboards and rooting around until he finds their movie snacks. He tears open a packet of popcorn – toffee, the only flavour that Teddy and May will eat – and pours some into the bowl. “I mean, what kind of teacher says that bullying is just playing?”

“A shit one?” Ben suggests, wrapping his arms around Callum from behind and hooking his chin over his shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now, and you’re still tense. They’ll pick up on it.”

Callum sighs and leans back into Ben’s arms, his eyes drifting shut. “I know, I do. But the fact that May was the one to get in trouble when she was the only one to stand up for him isn’t fair. I swear, when I get done with that teacher tomorrow.” He draws in a breath when Ben kisses at his neck and lets himself relax into it.

“And that’s exactly what it is-” Ben counters. “A problem for _tomorrow.”_

“When did you become the reasonable one in this marriage?”

Ben laughs and nips at Callum’s neck in response which has his husband gasping and gripping at the counter. “You know, it’s kind of hot when you’re defending our family,” he teases, sliding his hands up the front of Callum’s shirt to rest on his stomach.

“Easy tiger-” Callum hums, moving his hands from the counter to rest over Ben’s, thumb brushing across the cool metal of his wedding band. “They’re waiting for us.”

Ben doesn’t say anything, just busies himself with kissing across Callum’s neck for a few more seconds until he forces himself to take a step back. “Later?”

“Later,” Callum promises, turning back around and pulling Ben in for a chaste kiss. “Now go and get ready to sing for your audience, Rapunzel.”

“Does that make you my Flynn Rider?” He steps forward until Callum’s back hits the counter and then reaches around him to grab the bowl of popcorn.

“You’ll have to work harder than that to get me to sing for you.”

Ben hums and tosses a piece of popcorn in the air then catches it in his mouth. “Pretty sure I’ll have you singing for me later, Flynn! Grab the drinks, will you?”

Callum rolls his eyes fondly as Ben goes and roots around in the cupboard for what they’ve affectionately dubbed _the movie cups._ One’s in the shape of a unicorn, a straw where the horn should be, and the other’s a rocket ship with a straw at the top. They won’t spill if the kids knock them over, something that they’d learned the hard way.

“Right, I’ve got the drinks! Who wants the unicorn and who wants the rocket?” he calls out, almost stumbling when Teddy runs into his legs and reaches up for the unicorn cup. He scampers off once he’s got it and drops himself in the corner of the sofa.

“I guess that means you get the rocket, darling,” Callum says, dropping down in the space next to Ben and handing May the cup when she climbs up next to him and deposits herself half in his lap, half on the sofa.

“So, what are we watching?” Ben asks, leaning into his husband when he curls his arms around his shoulders and drops a kiss to the top of his head.

They both know it’s coming even before Teddy holds out the DVD case. It’s Tangled, because of course it is.

“Perfect choice!” Ben practically beams. “Daddy told me in the kitchen he was in the mood for some singing.”

Both the kids beam and throw their hands up as the movie starts – Callum’s never been more grateful than he has in that moment for _the movie cups_ , he doesn’t fancy cleaning apple juice off of the walls all night – and it doesn’t take long until they’re scream-singing along with the lyrics.

“I love you,” Ben whispers towards the end of the movie once the kids have tired themselves out. The popcorn bowl is empty and he’s pretty sure he can hear snoring.

“I love you too,” he whispers back, craning his neck _just_ enough so he can lean in for a chaste kiss. May groans in protest at the movement and Callum smiles against Ben’s lips.

He leans back up and takes his husbands hand instead, thumb fiddling with the ring again and wonders to himself for the second time that day how he’d ever managed to get this lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> ben and callum are married and have 3 kids: the twins and lexi no i don't take criticism
> 
> i'm on tumblr @permetstu


End file.
